


fool me twice

by SilkyinaBottle



Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, cheating at video games, nick needs to be stopped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 01:20:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10979400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilkyinaBottle/pseuds/SilkyinaBottle
Summary: It becomes increasingly clear that this game is Josh’s win; he's hyperfocused in on the game, and when he gets this way there’s very little that can break his concentration.But Nick has never been one to play fair.





	fool me twice

**Author's Note:**

> this has been on my tumblr forever, but it was separated into two parts there and i thought they deserved to be joined together in holy matrimony. so here they are. it was a beautiful wedding, you should have been there.

“Fucking _dammit!”_ Paul cries, just barely containing the urge to throw his controller in the air as Meadow Night just barely slips out of view and turns into a burst of red light at the bottom of the stage.

 _“PLAYER ONE DEFEATED,”_ shouts the game’s announcer, and Paul does his best to glare daggers at the disembodied voice. Which is to say he just glares at the TV screen. Very, very threateningly.

To his left, Josh laughs, even if he’s too focused on the game to get a proper look at Paul’s face. “You know, I’m starting to think falling off of shit is just your special talent.” He doesn’t take his eyes of the screen for even a second, and with the way Nick’s thumbs are flying across his controller Paul is starting to regret sitting in between the two of them (even if that’s what he always does).

“I’ll have you know I’m talented in _many_ areas!” Paul retorts, rolling his chair backwards until he feels like he’s out of Nick and Josh’s immediate disaster area. Thank god he ended up sitting in the computer chair. “Not including that one. I’m really bad at that.” He says that, but his palms are sweating so much he feels as if he could slip off the chair at any moment. He should have known it would come to this when he agreed to play Stomp Sisters with the two of them, but he’s always much too hopeful, much too optimistic and things always turn out like this. Now all he can do is sit back and hope they don’t drag him into whatever inevitable argument this situation ends in.

They’re equally matched at first, between Nick’s carefully timed projectiles as Bold Boy and Josh’s flawless counters as Civilian (in the usual skin he picks out—bubblegum pink, with the shiny eyes and flower-print clothing). But Josh has always been tricky to fight against; he’s near ruthless in his technique, but never sacrifices strategy for brute force. And unlike Paul, who always finds a way to make his plans blindingly obvious, Josh is always underhanded, always unreadable, and always unpredictable. It becomes increasingly clear that this is Josh’s win, even as Nick keeps his damage percentage only slightly lower than his own. Josh is hyperfocused in on the game, and when he gets this way there’s very little that can break his concentration.

But Nick has never been one to play fair.

Paul sees the start of Nick’s movement before Josh does: he raises one hand to grab the collar of Josh’s shirt, and for a moment Paul is afraid they’re going to truly, actually get into a fist fight in the middle of their dorm room. Justifiably; it wouldn’t be the first time one of their arguments had turned physical, although maybe then it was more or less in jest… Still, he gets out of his chair to stop them, hoping he can pry the two of them apart before it’s too late.

He definitely didn’t expect Nick to pull Josh down to his level and press their lips together. That thought had never once crossed his mind.

…Okay. _Okay._ Maybe it had, once or twice, in the middle of the night, in the safety of his bed where no one could judge him for thinking of his two best friends as any more than just that: his best friends. But he had never thought it was actually within the realm of possibility. He feels his stomach twist as chills run down his body and blood rushes to his cheeks. God, _he_ feels flustered and he’s not even _kissing_ anyone.

None of them move. Paul can’t bring himself to move a single step closer, Josh is frozen in place, and Nick looks oddly smug for someone who decided to kiss his childhood friend with absolutely no warning.

And then time snaps back its normal speed and Nick pulls away and swipes his thumb across the C-stick, sending Josh’s poor Civilian rocketing across the screen and out of view. Josh stares at him with his mouth open, unmoving even as the announcer calls out, _“GAME!”_

“Ha!” Nick cries as Bold Boy strikes a victory pose in the center of the screen. “See Josh, this is what happens when you try to challenge a pr—” He’s cut short as Josh leaps out of his chair, pouncing on him and sending them both tumbling to the ground. It’s only now that Paul finds control of his legs again, and he rushes across the room to stop them from killing each other…

…Only to find that Josh is not, in fact, trying to kill Nick, but is instead kissing him hungrily as he pins him to the floor.

Oh.

So. This is happening.

He tries not to watch _too_ closely, but it’s hard not to notice the way Nick squeezes his eyes shut, just _barely_ tilting his head to the right to deepen the kiss. Or the way Josh moves his hands down to grasp Nick’s hips, like he’s imagined doing this millions of times and knows exactly how he wants it to go. He doesn’t want to come off as creepy or even voyeuristic, but all he can _do_ is watch, his legs shaking and his heart hammering in his chest as his closest friends make out on the floor in front of him.

This really is happening, isn’t it?

There’s a clattering beside him, and he realizes belatedly that his foot had caught on the cord of Josh’s GameSphere controller, dragging it off of the edge of the chair and onto the floor. Nick and Josh break apart to stare at him, as if it’s only just now occurred to them that Paul is still here. He smiles sheepishly, silently praying that his face isn’t nearly as red as it feels.

The room is deathly silent for all of ten seconds. And then Josh grins. “You’re free to join us, you know.”

“U-uh, I… Uh, no! No, that’s fine!” he finally manages to choke out. It feels like all of the air has been squeezed out of his lungs, and he feels light-headed as he turns around and makes a beeline towards the door. “I-I’ll just… wait for you two outside! L-let me know w-when you’re done!” He would absolutely stay if he knew for a fact that Josh was serious, but somehow the fear that Josh is just fucking around with him (as he usually is) weighs on him more than the overwhelming desire to wedge himself in between the two of them and—

He’s out the door before either Nick or Josh can say anything, leaning against it as he slams it shut behind him. His breaths come out short and shallow, making him feel like he’s just run a mile. His legs finally buckle underneath him and he slides to the floor, burying his burning face in his sweaty palms. Just one kiss he wasn’t even involved in and he’s turned into a crumpled, flustered mess outside him dorm room door.

He smiles despite himself, a warm, bubbly feeling rising in his chest.

 

It’s been two weeks since Nick and Josh started dating, and Paul doesn’t know why he expected the two of them to include him. Maybe because they do everything together. Maybe because Josh had _looked_ at him that day they got together and said he was welcome to _join_ them. Maybe because Nick’s touches always seemed to linger a second too long, even now, even when he’s taken. Maybe because it was just getting hard to look at the two of them sharing quick kisses or holding hands without imagining himself as a part of that picture.

Or maybe it’s because, for whatever reason, the two of them still insist on making him sit in the middle. Every. Damn. Time.

He could understand it if it was only in front of their friends, but even then they had announced their relationship in the Normal Boots group chat only minutes after telling Paul. There’s no need to hide it, and they certainly aren’t trying to. No, they spend most lunch periods alternating between their usual arguments and being obnoxiously sappy. It’s getting hard to bear, and it certainly doesn’t help that all of his friends look at him with a strange mix of pity and exasperation.

Continue has gone from three to two-plus-one, and while initially he was happy for them, Paul’s not sure how much longer he can stand to watch when he wants so desperately to be involved.

But he finds little ways to distract himself, like lounging in the bottom bunk and trying to beat Nick’s high score in VarioVendibles while the other boy watches over his shoulder. While leaning against his side. With his arm placed behind him, his hand almost touching Paul’s hip. With Josh doing homework in the top bunk, where he can’t see the two of them at all.

This is an awful distraction.

He tries to focus back in on the task at hand. Nick’s high score is eighty-two completed microgames. He’s at fifty-seven right now. He doesn’t have much further to go, so long as he thinks about anything other than how warm Nick feels against him and how much he’d like to lean into his touch and how Josh would absolutely slaughter him if he did anything with his boyfriend. Not that Nick would _let_ him do anything of course, but… but…

Nick lets out a little grunt of discontent as Paul’s score reaches the sixties. “I thought you’d slip up sooner than this,” he mumbles, and that’s enough to keep Paul going out of spite.

“Maybe I’m just more talented than you think,” he replies as he slides the stylus swiftly across the touch screen.

He can almost _hear_ Nick roll his eyes. “Sure.” He’s quiet for a few moments after that, watching silently as Paul’s score slips into the seventies.

His movements begin to get jittery. He’s so close to showing Nick up, he _knows_ he can do it… Seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five, seventy- _six…_

He’s just starting microgame seventy-seven when Nick does it. He sees Nick’s hand cross his line of sight before he feels fingers graze his cheekbone. He turns his head towards him, not sure if he’s about to ask what he’s doing or complain, but he can’t get the words out of his mouth before Nick’s lips are on his. They’re a little chapped, and he can hear the game over sound effect blaring from his 4DS speakers, but Nick is _kissing_ him and he’s not sure anything could be better.

Until, of course, he remembers Josh’s position in the bed above them, and he shoves Nick away before he can even think to kiss him back. “You…,” he whispers, breathless, “Nick, your _boyfriend’s_ in the room.”

Apparently he wasn’t quiet enough, because Josh’s head pops into view within seconds. He stares at the two of them upside-down, having dangled himself over the edge of the top bunk. He smiles. “Oh, sweet. Did you do it?”

Nick smiles right back, sending him a thumbs-up. “Of course,” he replies as Josh’s face disappears, soon being replaced by his feet as he hops down onto the floor. He turns to Paul now, an apologetic smile on his face. “Sorry about that. Josh thought it would be cute if we did it this way, but I expected us to be in his line of sight. You know, so you’d know he was okay with it.” He places a hand on either side of Paul’s waist, moving his thumbs around in comforting circles. “I didn’t freak you out too badly, did I?”

The mattress shifts as Josh sits down on his opposite side, wasting no time in laying his head on Paul’s shoulder. “Y-you…,” Paul starts, feeling his face flush bright pink at all the affection. He’s beginning to feel like a broken record. “You guys _planned_ all this?”

“Well, obviously,” says Josh. “Did you really think we’d do something so much fun without you?” He lifts his head from Paul’s shoulder just enough to meet his eyes and smirks. “Besides, it was kind of obvious you liked us from the start.”

Paul can feel the tips of his ears burn. “Was it really…?”

Nick lets out a laugh, leaning in just a fraction closer to Paul’s face. “Honestly, you’re so obvious, it’s awful. We started getting all shmoopy in front of you just to see you squirm.” His voice drops down low, and he speaks with almost tangible sincerity as he stares down at bed sheets. “It was adorable, but it was getting really hard just waiting for you to get a clue and realize how much we love you. So Josh came up with this.”

Paul can hardly believe his ears. His two best friends, the guys he’s been pining after for years, who he thought he’d lost his chance with weeks ago, are telling him they loved him so much they conducted a scheme paralleling previous events to get him to realize it. It all just seems unreal.

But he knows it must be real, especially when Josh tugs on the back of his shirt and asks, “So, where’s my kiss?” against the shell of his ear.


End file.
